High drama marks Day Two of arrest of Trinamul leaders, HC hearing Wednesday

Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra, Sovan Chatterjee at SSKM Hospital, but Firhad Hakim still in Presidency jail

The four arrested leaders are likely to file an appeal against the Calcutta High Court’s stay on the bail granted to them by the CBI special court. The Telegraph Online

Arnab Ganguly   |  TT  |  Calcutta   | 18.05.21: The arrest of four top Trinamul leaders, including two ministers, in connection with the Narada sting operation was the springboard for drama of all varieties, namely, political, medical and a domestic one.

In the wee hours of Tuesday, two of those arrested, MLA Madan Mitra and former mayor Sovan Chatterjee, were brought to SSKM Hospital after they complained of ill health.

Chatterjee is a patient of chronic sugar, but his immediate health concern was not known. But standing by him in his hour of crisis were the two women in his life, his wife of 22 years Ratna _ he has filed for divorce from her _ and his friend Baisakhi Banerjee. Ratna, now an MLA from the very seat he represented, had rushed to the Nizam Palace, soon after he was arrested on Monday.

At night, while Chatterjee was in a cell at Presidency Jail, Baisakhi was caught on camera outside the jail premises banging a door, demanding that she be allowed to meet him. “He has high sugar. Give him his medicine,” Baisakhi was heard saying a number of times.

When Chatterjee was moved from Presidency Jail to the SSKM Woodburn Ward, Baisakhi was there too. Sources said she managed to sneak inside the 40-bed heritage wing of the sate's premiere hospital and demanded admission there. 

“She said she has severe health complications and has to be admitted. We have been trying to convince her that admission to the hospital is not possible this way. She has refused to leave,” said a source.

In case of Mitra, his medical complaint was specific: breathlessness. Mitra was kept on oxygen support for a while immediately after his admission to the hospital and again later on Tuesday afternoon. Mitra was detected with Covid a month ago and has been under treatment. His condition is now reported to be stable.

Later in the day, the third and the senior-most among the quartet Subrata Mukherjee too was admitted to SSKM Hospital after complaining of difficulty in breathing. A cardiologist from SSKM has also attended on the septuagenarian Mukherjee.

For the time being, cabins 102, 103 and 104 at Woodburn Ward are where the ailing leaders have been kept.

The fourth, Firhad Hakim, state minister as well as mayor of Calcutta, is still in Presidency Jail.

For the ruling Trinamul, however, the arrest of the four has signalled the beginning of a long politico-legal drama.

A series of internal meetings have been held within the party to decide on the next course of action. The four arrested leaders are likely to file an appeal against the Calcutta High Court’s stay on the bail granted to them by the CBI special court. The case will come up for hearing before the bench led by acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal on Wednesday.

Mamata’s dharna at the CBI office at Nizam Palace and the Trinamul’s show of strength on the streets outside on Monday did not go down well with the high court, which described the situation on the ground as “extra-ordinary”.

Despite the electoral routing that the BJP suffered at the hands of the Trinamul, its machinations to grab power in the state are still on by exercising its control over central probe agencies. The suspicion is that the BJP will continue to let tension simmer on the ground in Bengal and engineer more defections from the Trinamul. 

The case before the high court was placed by no less than solicitor-general of India Tushar Mehta and additional solicitor-general of India Y.J. Dastoor. Acting on behalf of the CBI, they said the agency was being obstructed in carrying out its duty in the state.

The fate of the Trinamul leaders, and whether the case will continue to be heard in Calcutta or moved elsewhere will be decided on Wednesday.